A FINE WINE SAFARI

I think I first met Jacques de Klerk of The Winery of Good Hope a few years ago at a ‘very liquid’ casual fine wine dinner in Stellenbosch organised by Ryan Mostert and Samantha Suddons of Silvervis / Terracura fame. While I’m quite familiar with the Radford Dale wines, Jacques’s own pet side project, the Reverie skin contact Chenin Blanc, was a new one for me.

I recently enjoyed another bottle of the 2016 in London. Sourced from an old vine Chenin Blanc vineyard in the Swartland, this wine is made in a savoury oxidative style with several days skin contact before being aged for over a year in older oak. With the 2017 vintage already released and en route to Europe, grab the last few bottles of this exceptional 2016 if you can find it. This really was a superb vintage in South Africa specifically for older vine Chenin Blanc.

Jacques de Klerk Reverie Chenin Blanc 2016, WO Swartland, 11 Abv.

Rich and spicy, pithy and candied with an incredible lemon sherbet zing, enchanting white citrus, lime cordial and grapefruit length. The aromatics show the spicy lift of skin contact but it melts harmoniously into a grassy, fynbos and granitic complexity. Taut, concentrated and fresh but certainly does not lack any weight or archetypal Chenin Blanc punch despite the impressively low alcohol level. A very intelligently made wine that is very true to its Chenin Blanc roots in the Swartland but also displays its characterful eccentricities proudly.

Greg Sherwood MW is a London based South African Master of Wine and Fine Wine Buyer at Handford Wines in South Kensington. He is a regular judge at the Decanter World Wine Awards, SA Top 100, Nederburg Wine Auction and WOSA World Sommelier Awards, and tastes many of the world's finest wines every week. Join Greg on a safari into wine - you might even spot a few unicorns!